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Way down in Deep 13...
Greetings Rowsdowers!
It's been a long time since I posted any new customs here. So I wanted to return with one that would hopefully turn heads
...
Please understand that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is my favorite TV show of all time. Nothing else even comes close. I love every incarnation of it. It makes me smile and happy and laugh in way nothing else ever has.
So this custom has been a dream project of mine for some time.
Before I go much further, I want to point out that this project, unlike most of my customs, contains very little original work by me. It is an adaptation of a VERY RARE resin kit released by the Janus Company in conjunction with Best Brains back in 1998. Finding it in any shape is hard. Finding it unbuilt is near impossible. I was lucky to snag this one in a Buy it Now on Ebay after it had been up for a mere 22 mins! It was my lucky day. It was based on the appearance of Mike Nelson and the Bots from their SciFi channel era (the last three seasons).
It is in 1/8 scale, which is Mego scale (although in the model kit community, this is referred to as Aurora-scale). So I knew it would make a great custom!
But I didn't just want this to be a resin kit alteration.. I wanted it to be a toy. That's when I got the idea to use something different for the Bots!
Shout! Factory has been releasing the old MST3K episodes on DVD sets. In 2010-2011, they released "Deluxe" versions of three of the sets, which came with miniature plastic replicas of Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy! These looked far more toy like than any resin counterpart ever could, so I decided to retrofit them to go into my Mego set.
With Crow, I just needed to pop him off his base and create a swivel stem for him to attach to the diorama desk. Otherwise no painting required. Gypsy was a little more difficult-- with her I had to cut off her "plasticky" body hose, and then join her head to her base with a poseable wire armature. Once I did that, I surrounded the armature with new 1/2" black plastic corrugated hose.
The hardest part about Mike Nelson was the jumpsuit. Thankfully Austin pointed me in the right direction. Thanks buddy! I just printed the arm patch and name tag on some decal sheets and presto, his suit was done (I must admit, though, it took me quite a while to find that exact patch Mike wears in the show). Granted, Tom Servo is a little out of scale. But his toyishness makes up for that, IMO.
Mike's shoes are just painted "Biff Bang Pow" Steve Austin shoes. The likeness was sculpted by the great Jeff Yagher. All I did was retrofit it to go on a Mego body, and paint it.
Crow's head turns and he swivels on his pedestal. I dremeled off the resin lights on the counter top and replaced them with marker cap stubs. I will one day light this kit.
The set was primed in gray primer, and then airbrushed with sky blue paint at an angle, in order to provide deep shadows (Deeeep hurting shadows?). Then highlighted with Folk Art brand copper paint. The name plate came with the kit, and is painted.
The lights are colored plastic squares with a clear plastic styrene coverslip over them to give the right look. When I light this kit, it should look sweet. I love the fact that Gypsy is poseable.
You didn't ask, but I like Joel and Mike equally, and love the entire run of the show... I will eventually make a Joel figure as well. But for now I wanted to show the set.
Well, that's all for now. Thank you for sampling my wares (sample my fist, you ren-fair reject!)
Best,
Matt
(sampo! sampo! sampo!)
Greetings Rowsdowers!
It's been a long time since I posted any new customs here. So I wanted to return with one that would hopefully turn heads
...Please understand that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is my favorite TV show of all time. Nothing else even comes close. I love every incarnation of it. It makes me smile and happy and laugh in way nothing else ever has.
So this custom has been a dream project of mine for some time.
Before I go much further, I want to point out that this project, unlike most of my customs, contains very little original work by me. It is an adaptation of a VERY RARE resin kit released by the Janus Company in conjunction with Best Brains back in 1998. Finding it in any shape is hard. Finding it unbuilt is near impossible. I was lucky to snag this one in a Buy it Now on Ebay after it had been up for a mere 22 mins! It was my lucky day. It was based on the appearance of Mike Nelson and the Bots from their SciFi channel era (the last three seasons).
It is in 1/8 scale, which is Mego scale (although in the model kit community, this is referred to as Aurora-scale). So I knew it would make a great custom!
But I didn't just want this to be a resin kit alteration.. I wanted it to be a toy. That's when I got the idea to use something different for the Bots!
Shout! Factory has been releasing the old MST3K episodes on DVD sets. In 2010-2011, they released "Deluxe" versions of three of the sets, which came with miniature plastic replicas of Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy! These looked far more toy like than any resin counterpart ever could, so I decided to retrofit them to go into my Mego set.
With Crow, I just needed to pop him off his base and create a swivel stem for him to attach to the diorama desk. Otherwise no painting required. Gypsy was a little more difficult-- with her I had to cut off her "plasticky" body hose, and then join her head to her base with a poseable wire armature. Once I did that, I surrounded the armature with new 1/2" black plastic corrugated hose.
The hardest part about Mike Nelson was the jumpsuit. Thankfully Austin pointed me in the right direction. Thanks buddy!
I just printed the arm patch and name tag on some decal sheets and presto, his suit was done (I must admit, though, it took me quite a while to find that exact patch Mike wears in the show). Granted, Tom Servo is a little out of scale. But his toyishness makes up for that, IMO. Mike's shoes are just painted "Biff Bang Pow" Steve Austin shoes. The likeness was sculpted by the great Jeff Yagher. All I did was retrofit it to go on a Mego body, and paint it.
Crow's head turns and he swivels on his pedestal. I dremeled off the resin lights on the counter top and replaced them with marker cap stubs. I will one day light this kit.
The set was primed in gray primer, and then airbrushed with sky blue paint at an angle, in order to provide deep shadows (Deeeep hurting shadows?). Then highlighted with Folk Art brand copper paint. The name plate came with the kit, and is painted.
The lights are colored plastic squares with a clear plastic styrene coverslip over them to give the right look. When I light this kit, it should look sweet. I love the fact that Gypsy is poseable.
You didn't ask, but I like Joel and Mike equally, and love the entire run of the show... I will eventually make a Joel figure as well. But for now I wanted to show the set.
Well, that's all for now. Thank you for sampling my wares (sample my fist, you ren-fair reject!)
Best,
Matt
(sampo! sampo! sampo!)
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